Good morning everyone. Today I have prepared a remedial lesson for us on Obamacare. I just realized that we haven’t discussed Big Guy’s legacy legislation since well before the reelection. And I recall that many of you have some reservations concerning its efficacy. So now that it has been deemed the law of the land, I did a little additional research. As it turns out, Obamacare is not as bad as you’ve been led to believe. It’s actually worse, much worse. All the way from the “free, preventative” annual exams, If you are complaining of a new problem, then you...

The US Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for further litigation over the constitutionality of President Obama’s health-care reform law. In a somewhat unusual maneuver, the high court agreed to send one of several cases challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA) back to a federal appeals court to consider the underlying merits of the lawsuit – including whether the measure violates religious freedom. In late June, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to uphold the ACA as a valid exercise of Congress’s taxing authority. The ruling forced the dismissal of a handful of other cases challenging the reform...

WASHINGTON—States will receive more than $9 in federal money for every $1 they spend to cover low-income residents under President Barack Obama's health care law, according to a nonpartisan analysis released Monday. Expanding Medicaid to cover about 20 million more low-income people will cost over $1 trillion nationally from 2013 to 2022, said the joint report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute. But the analysis found that states will pay just $76 billion of that, a combined share of roughly 7 percent. The feds will pay the other $952 billion. Republican governors have resisted the Medicaid expansion,...

The Supreme Court today ordered a federal appeals court to take a new look at the controversial Obamacare law and whether it unconstitutionally forces taxpayers to fund abortions and contraception, violating religious freedoms.The high court ordered the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider the case of Liberty University, a Christian college that contends ObamaÂ’s health care law violates the schoolÂ’s religious freedoms. A federal judge rejected the case and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the lawsuit was premature but did not deal with the main points the lawsuit brought up.When the Supreme Court upheld the...

The C.R. Bard plant in Queensbury is laying off 54 full-time employees, citing lower-than-projected sales. Employees were notified of the layoffs Monday, and the actual reductions will take place over the next few weeks. The layoffs announced Monday are on top of 55 layoffs at the medical device manufacturing plant in July, said Scott Lowry, C.R. Bard vice president and treasurer. “It’s a challenging health-care environment for a lot of reasons,” Lowry said. “We’re right-sizing to meet those changes. We’re not seeing the volumes we had in the past, the volumes we were expecting.” No additional layoffs are planned for...

What a clusterfark. The Hill: ***** "The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems. The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama's signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com. Sixteen states - most of them governed by Republicans - have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up with one instead. Another five states said they want a...

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the constitutionality of the health reform law’s employer requirements and mandatory coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay. The move could open the door for President Barack Obama’s health law to be back in front of the Supreme Court late next year. The Supreme Court responded to a request from Liberty University, one of the groups that sued over the health care law’s individual mandate in 2010. When the court ruled in June that the mandate was constitutional, it dismissed Liberty’s entire lawsuit. Over the summer, the...

A decision by the Supreme Court this morning opens up a potential new avenue of attack against ObamaCare on the grounds of religious liberty â€” and not just the HHS contraception mandate. The court overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Liberty University over the health-system overhaul, in a move that was not opposed by the Obama administration in court: The Supreme Court has revived a Christian collegeâ€™s challenge to President Barack Obamaâ€™s healthcare overhaul, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration.The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to consider the claim by Liberty...

Americans know instinctively that when liberals start talking about deficit reduction that’s it’s just a case of the fantods, as Huckleberry Finn would say. And say what you will about old Huck, but he knew a couple of frauds when he saw them. No matter what liberal “Wonks” like Ezra Klein say about the historically dumb healthcare “reform” known as Obamcare, Americans are uneasy about it. And they should be. The best thing- as Democrat strategist James Carville admitted last year- that could have happened for the Democrats is for the Supreme Court to have tossed out the landmark legislation that bears...

The Hill has an interesting story reporting on Republican governors refusing to set up state exchanges under Obamacare — which could save the states money since they are on the hook for costs in excess of federal grants. That means the feds will have to do it on a state-by-state basis, a daunting task even for this highly bureaucratic administration. Plus, it is perfectly legal under the law to engage in such passive resistance. Some liberals say that approach isn’t conservative because, in effect, it allows the feds to run state health care. (As if they care!) I’m not buying....

Some of the recently issued rules, particularly on community rating (charging the same price to everyone regardless of health status) and limiting the premium difference between older and younger applicants are likely to increase prices for young people – and over half (55%) of the uninsured are under age 35. If prices rise sharply for this group, they’re much less likely to buy coverage, since Obamacare lets them buy insurance for the same price even after they become sick. And if young people pass up coverage, the rates will rise for everyone else in the exchange – and for taxpayers...

Obama faces huge challenge in setting up insurance exchangesBy Elise Viebeck - 11/25/12 02:45 PM ET The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems. The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com. Sixteen states — most of them governed by Republicans — have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up...

The good news about the election is that when you are finally able to get in to see your unionized government doctor, the euthanasia shot he gives you will be paid for by some rich atheist that you never met–as authorized by a death panel in a far distant state. Best of all, nobody will have any remorse. Like the Borg from Star Trek, who commit evil without a conscience, our society is rapidly moving to evil without emotions. Texans, the only way to avoid tyranny is secession! Let’s get out now before it’s too late. Secession is no longer...

This is a brief follow-on piece to the original, (Vanity) Demographics Are Not Destiny, or, It's Just How We Roll In that piece I considered the GOP-e's analysis of the 2012 Presidential Election loss as due to unsurmountable demographic shifts in the electorate, and showed that the changes in the electorate were not due solely to demographics, but to changes in the labor market and the attitudes instilled into the historical blue-collar voting bloc (across sexual and racial lines) in an attempt to gain political power. I then showed the financial dangers of such an approach and compared them to...

After the election, a lot of people are excited that they can now get healthcare. Or maybe not quite yet, but by 2014, when ObamaCare is fully implemented. The only problem is that healthcare is not like an Obama phone. The phones are all made by a standard process in a factory, probably in China, and they usually work. You can use them to call a healthcare provider. But you usually get the ’if this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911,’ followed by the phone menu. How will this change with ObamaCare? Doesn’t that give you a right...

It may be unpopular to say so, but it is true: the U.S. is very close to, if not past, the tipping point at which the majority of the people are net beneficiaries of big government — or so they think. People who receive a check from the government may see voting for a smaller government as contrary to their best interest. If they don’t pay taxes, why should they care about a tax increase? Perceptions are, however, deceiving.”Healthcare reform,” as the (Un)Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is billed, probably shows more clearly than anything else how most Americans, including Romney’s...

Psalm 666: The State Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want A Psalm of Obama By Doug Giles 11/25/2012 (To be sung by children, K-12, every morning of their seven-day school week.)* The State is my shepherd, I shall not want. It makes me lie down in federally owned pastures. It leads me beside quiet waters in banned fishing areas. It restores my soul through its control. It guides me in the path of dependency for its namesake. Even though our nation plunges into the valley of the shadow of debt, I will fear no evil, For Barack will be...

Editorial: Obamacare, the ultimate job killerPublished on November 24, 2012 **SNIP** Total: ~6,000+ jobs Of course, the latest is causing quite a stir. Hostess, maker of the ever-love Twinkie, is closing their doors and letting 18,500 employees go. This has hit America’s obese population like a sugar brick. Unfortunately, they have no one to blame but themselves and their votes. While the headlines read that labor negations are to blame, the bigger story is an uncertain economy and new taxation. Part of the increased labor cost is Obamacare, and as a result the union was asked to reduce benefits and/or...

Children with "hereditary defects" such as Down syndrome were among the first victims of the Nazi euthanasia program, which killed those deemed "unworthy of life." From Healthcare to Holocaust The New American 24 November 2012 It all started modestly enough. Hoping to stem the rising tide of socialism in the late 19th century, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck decided to institute a welfare state, the theory being that finding a middle ground between laissez-faire capitalism and full-blown socialism would blunt the popularity of the latter without unduly interfering with the former. Bismarck convinced the Reichstag to create four programs:...

Obama won, Obamacare is the law, and, as my wife says, I will just have to learn to dance to a new song. Now, don’t get me wrong, Obamacare is awful. Forget all the “free stuff” it provides. Children covered on their parents’ plan until 26 years of age? A scam, making young adults — excuse me, children — pay for complete, comprehensive health insurance when all they need and should pay for is major catastrophe insurance. Then there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free.” You gotta love this stuff. I wish I...

I have been accused of using invectives and exaggeration in describing the current administration, which now has four more years to dismantle our Constitution. How dare I call the EPA a rogue organization? It's director, Lisa Jackson decided to enforce a mandate that oil refiners blend cellulosic ethanol into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. There is one little problem though. It does not yet exist commercially. That is apparently of little concern to Lisa. The EPA fined refiners $6.8 million for not following their edict. They appealed her decision. She thanked them for their concern, but said the decision will...

Medical supply giant Stryker is the latest company to announce job cuts in anticipation of coming costs associated with ObamaCare, even though the man who inherited a fortune from the company's founder is a fan. The company will cut 1,170 jobs, or five percent of its worldwide workforce, despite the fact that the founder's grandson was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Medical tech scion Jon Stryker, whose net worth is currently estimated at $1.2 billion, contributed $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC and has given $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the...

There are already 8 million Americans working part time who want to work full time. It seems likely that number will skyrocket once Obamacare is implemented. An Obamacare supporter is as stupid as the Democrats who passed the legislation in the first place: ******** When my better half told me that her boss was thinking about cutting all full-time employees to part time in order to avoid the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act insurance requirements (for full-time employees), my initial response was, "Surely the federal government wouldn't have allowed such a blatantly obvious way of getting out of the...

Everett Stadig recuperating in the hospital after being shoved and breaking his hip. Photo courtesy of Everett Stadig. Denver, Colo., Nov 21, 2012 / 04:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The arrest of a prominent Denver relator who allegedly assaulted a senior citizen collecting signatures for a pro-life petition has lead to new developments in three unsolved rape cases. â€śWere it not for Mr. Costelloâ€™s arrest at the grocery store in July, there would have been no new leads, and there would have been no charges filed in connection with these three unsolved sexual assaults,â€ť Lynn Kimbrough of the Denver District...

Three years ago, Dr. Keith Smith, co-founder and managing partner of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, took an initiative that would only be considered radical in the health care industry: He posted online a list of prices for 112 common surgical procedures. The 51-year-old Smith, a self-described libertarian, and his business partner, Dr. Steve Lantier, founded the Surgery Center 15 years ago, after they became disillusioned with the way patients were treated at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, where the two men worked as anesthesiologists. In 1997, Smith and Lantier bought the shell of a former surgical center with...

Obama SBA Head Hasn't Heard Of ObamaCare Impacting Small BusinessPosted on November 21, 2012 **SNIP** "You know, I travel all around the country, every week I go to a different part of the country. I'm with small businesses. And I'm not hearing that," Mills said about the negative impact ObamaCare has on small business.

President Obama’s reelection guaranteed at least one thing for his second term – Obamacare is here here to stay. But that is not going to keep Republicans from trying to chip away at the law. House Speaker John Boehner wrote, in an op-ed, Tuesday that cuts to the president’s landmark legislative achievement should be included in efforts to deal with the looming fiscal cliff. “We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford to leave it intact. That’s why I’ve been clear that the law has to stay on the table as both parties discuss ways to solve our nation’s massive...

The Squeeze: An Economic Theory Premise of the book: A western country is running low on funds to keep their economy, with its soon-to-be totally dependent peoples, rolling along. Ruling from the shadows is an evil governing body, let's call them, hmmmm..."The Squeezers," that come up with what they believe to be a brilliant plan. The Plan: They make a law so impossible to follow and difficult to understand that it is always open to interpretation, totally fluid. The Care Institutions are forced to follow the law and in doing so the Squeezed who have been saving, working and watching...

Pennsylvania's Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare. "It's kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don't have the money to pay for it," said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis. On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will...

Dear Concerned Citizen: On November 6, citizens across the state and country voted to reelect President Obama. As a result, the implementation of federal health care reform continues to move forward. While I may disagree with the federal health care law, health insurance exchanges will now be built. To do so, federal law provides states three options: 1) create a federally run exchange; 2) create a state-run exchange; 3) establish a partnership plan requiring the state to administer the exchange for the federal government. The most important consideration for me in deciding which option is best for our state is...

Dear Concerned Citizen: On November 6, citizens across the state and country voted to reelect President Obama. As a result, the implementation of federal health care reform continues to move forward. While I may disagree with the federal health care law, health insurance exchanges will now be built. To do so, federal law provides states three options: 1) create a federally run exchange; 2) create a state-run exchange; 3) establish a partnership plan requiring the state to administer the exchange for the federal government. The most important consideration for me in deciding which option is best for our state is...

President Barack Obama must show a willingness to cut back the healthcare reform law during budget negotiations, says House Speaker John Boehner. “President Obama has won re-election, but his healthcare law is still driving up costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. As was the case before the election, Obamacare has to go,” Boehner writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The president’s health care law adds a massive, expensive, unworkable government program at a time when our national debt already exceeds the size of our country’s entire economy. We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford to...

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia has received government funding that enables it to expand its systematic sexualization and degradation of 9th graders in the Newport News public schools with “risk reduction” sex education. The money comes from the $75 million pool set aside as a part of Obamacare to teach the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP).The PREP money is setting students up for disaster as it enables Planned Parenthood and other organizations access to the most vulnerable youth across the nation. The curriculum being used in Newport News, Virginia, is distributed by ETR Associates, formerly the education department of Planned...

A medical device excise tax scheduled to hit Jan. 1 is causing uncertainty among manufacturers and providers, a healthcare expert said Monday. The 2.3% tax will be on sales of FDA-approved devices that are used by a physician or in a physician's office. It's intended to generate $20 billion over the next several years, which is expected to offset some healthcare reform costs. While types of devices affected by the tax include pacemakers and stents, it also can include surgical gloves or wheelchairs, which could mean complications for long-term care providers purchasing those items. It also could cause some companies...

The federal government has issued a series of sweeping new rules and regulations surrounding Obamacare—benefits that health-industry experts fear could end up costing Americans more. … Betsy McCaughey, a former New York lieutenant governor under George Pataki and author of “Decoding the Obamacare Law,” told Newsmax the new rules and regulations will cost consumers more. … Meanwhile, companies with 50 or more employees will have a choice of sponsoring a health plan for 100 percent of their workers or paying an annual penalty of $2000. One study shows a third of those employers with 50 or more workers may opt...

Posted By Bryan Preston On November 20, 2012 @ 9:35 am In Culture,Economy,News,Politics | 37 Comments When Rep. Nancy Pelosi infamously declared that we have to pass ObamaCare in order to find out wha's in it, she wasn't kidding. Buried in the mammoth 2700-page law that most in Congress did not bother to read before passing is Section 4205. That section requires any pizzeria, grocery store, or convenience store with more than 20 locations to post calorie information in their stores on menu boards. The way the law is written, it requires the national pizza chains to post fixed information...

Twila Brase, president of the Citizen’s Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) and one of the most educated of Americans concerning the ins and outs of Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, believes the language of the law makes it clear that the overwhelming majority of people do not have to participate in ObamaCare unless they freely wish to do so. Brase writes: “Obamacare has more chinks in its armor than a turtle without a shell. As a result, state governors and legislators can inflict great damage. The following amazing chink was discussed by a Goldwater Institute attorney during...

Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich has reneged on his campaign pledge to “block ObamaCare” being established in Ohio. And he has done it a way which would make Barack Obama proud—by lying through his teeth. Contrary to Nancy Pelosi’s claims, passing ObamaCare has not enabled most Americans to know what’s in it. But one thing has become clear to those who have studied this signature, power-play legislation of the left— courageous Republican governors can kill it. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act can only infect the nation and the American people if states are willing either to set up...

Even though Obamacare was decided months ago, pundits are still dissecting the court's actions. CNN's top legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and famed lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz sat down on Friday at New York's 92nd Street Y to debate why Chief Justice John Roberts used his deciding vote to pass President Barack Obama's controversial health care law. And, according to Dershowitz, Roberts did it just so he could side with Republicans from now on without getting called out for being too conservative. "Roberts is very political," Dershowitz said in the interview, posted by Above The Law. "And what he did...

Hector Camacho might be in rough shape in hospital, but someone is out there bobbing and weaving like a champ. Meet Karen Mills, President Obama's head of the Small Business Administration. When Joe Scarborough asked her straight-up to state the cost per worker of Obamacare, Mills ducked like a pro, switched the subject, and wound up describing . . . how last year, she bought blueberry jam at a Maine farmers market as gifts for her friends! Not a joke—just a world-class non sequitur from an Obama administration that would rather talk about anything other than the cost of its...

Vermont is the only state in the nation on a path to a single payer health system. That could take a while, though. And in the meantime, the state has to set up an insurance exchange to comply with the Affordable Care Act. While some states are still struggling with the basic question of whether to do their own exchanges, Vermont is moving ahead at a rapid clip, digging into the details of how much various health plans will cost on its exchange. The Green Mountain Care Board this week released the basic outline of benefit packages that will be...

"Her family was told she was brain dead..... Now she’s back at home cooking dinner with her family....The world of organ donation in Denmark is in turmoil. A documentary was aired earlier this month which showed family members reacting in anguish to the news that their 19-year-old daughter was brain dead after a car accident, agreeing to donate her organs and allowing doctors to turn off her respirator.....“But we made a mistake underway and made the family believe that their daughter and sister would die.”....The hospital acknowledged that the question of organ donation should not have been raised as there...

GE Healthcare said Friday it is cutting 2 percent of its jobs in Wisconsin, where it has 6,500 employees, and 10 percent of its workforce in Vermont, where it employs about 500 people. The Waukesha-based medical equipment manufacturer said it needs to make "tough decisions in the current economic climate" and was looking for ways to streamline its operations and lower costs. "This will reduce complexity, speed up decision making and help us become more accessible to our customers," said GE spokesman Benjamin Fox. "It also addresses the continued economic challenges in Europe and the U.S., and it will position...

A federal judge has issued a ruling siding with the Obama administration saying that it has the right to force Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned and run company, to pay for drugs for women that may cause abortions.The privately held retail chain with more than 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its HHS mandate. The company says it would face $1.3 million in fines on a daily basis starting in January if it fails to comply with the mandate, which requires religious employers to pay for or refer women for abortion-cause...

The Obama administration issued new rules Tuesday that require insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions — one of the most popular provisions of President Obama’s healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department also began to implement other popular, but expensive, parts of the Affordable Care Act. Regulations released Tuesday will prohibit insurers from charging women a higher premium than men, and will require plans in every state to cover certain services.

Make no mistake the election results clearly say it: we got pasted. We can point fingers and wring our hands but the truth is we got flogged. Nevertheless, there are no permanent winners or permanent losers in the political American system. Conservatism did not necessarily lose. We got about 48% of the vote but there may be another 5% who understand economies and can be convinced to vote for a conservative Republican in 2016. We held the House and some observers are saying although our numbers are smaller we have a more conservative caucus than we had in the last...

With ObamaCare in the wings, the traditional forty- or fifty-hour work week will soon be replaced with a less than thirty-hour week for many American workers. To wit: many businesses, including ones that previously received ObamaCare waivers, are trying to avoid paying onerous fines for not providing employees with health coverage as mandated by the new law. President Obama recently said that he won't allow the budget to be "balanced on the backs of the middle class." He sure did give the appearance of truly caring about these "folks," but he failed to disclose the fact that, even if taxed...

What a difference an election can make. Just a week after the re-election of Barack Obama ended all Republican hopes of overturning the new health care law known as " Obamacare," Gov. Rick Scott and other Florida leaders who have steadfastly rejected the idea are now willing to at least talk about implementing it for the state's 3.8 million uninsured. " Mitt Romney did not win the election," Scott told reporters Friday in Washington D.C., hours before he released a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for a meeting to discuss implementing the law. "So it's...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge Monday rejected Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.'s request to block part of the federal health care overhaul that requires the arts and craft supply company to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after and week-after birth control pills. In a 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton denied a request by Hobby Lobby to prevent the government from enforcing portions of the health care law mandating insurance coverage for contraceptives the company's Christian owners consider objectionable. The Oklahoma City-based company and a sister company, Mardel Inc., sued the government in September, claiming the mandate violates...